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[adoucette]

I am looking to invest into a personal monitoring system for my studio, 4 separate mixers and a distribution hub. Ideally I would like it to be easy and through Cat-5, 16 channels would be great.

I was originally looking at the hearback system, the price was right, until I saw it was only 8 channels..

I am now considering the Aviom 16 system, which is much more expensive, but gives you alot more options..

I've also heard that Pro-co has a system.

Anyone know or use any other systems that I should check out?

Thanks
Andre

[Barry Hufker]

Andre,

If you've read the guidelines for this forum you'd know threads here are supposed to be reviews about equipment you own and use.  Your question would be better placed in "Whatever Works".

Barry

[Haolemon]

I have a small studio, and I have been using the Furman HR6 system for several years.  It has worked very well for me, and is easily expandable and reasonably priced.

I believe that they make a model which has a 16 channel mixer at each station.

[bushwick]

I have the Furman HRM/HDS16 system which is the larger of the two offered by Furman. I had fits with it for a few years blowing a chip in the box. I was pretty frustrated that I had to fix a box periodically. *Of course* I had put an "in wall" connector and one of the screws had just barely pierced the ribbon cable and for whatever reason I'd lose a box about once every two or three months. Anyway, problem solved and no issues since. However, until we figured out a way to bullet proof the ic that kept blowing I had several rounds of back and forth with Furman and I have to say, their service department is nothing short of stellar. They were SOOOO kind and helpful and if there was a very pressing session they did whatever to get me what I needed. GREAT GUYS indeed.

As for the system. Super flexible: each station can has two headphone jacks; a master volume with treble and bass (very handy if you are using sony 7506 headphones...turn the treble down a bit); eight mono channels and four stereo channels for 16 total channels of send; pan pots for each of the mono channels; and aux send for each channel on the box if you feel like getting tricky and connecting an effects unit directly to the headphone box; and microphone built in for talking back to the control room if there's not a mic open in the room the artist is in.

I dig mine and it works great for me. I haven't compared it to any other systems available.

Best,
joshua

[J.J. Blair]

I have the Langevin / Manley "More Me" system.  I have the 8 ch version, which is actually plenty for the tracking that I do.  They also make a 12 ch system, if that's not enough.

Its a totally discrete system, which ha s avery robust amplifier.  I've used the system with the ethernet cable and you have up down buttons for the volume, and hated that one.  The Manley box has worked flawlessly for 14 years for me, and has a lot of juice, as well as a built in TB system.

Did I mention that it has ELCO connectors, as well as TRS inputs?

[brett]

Aviom is the way to go for CAT5 monitoring of 16 channels. We have been using for a year. Working flawlessly since installed.

[Silvertone]

Before the studio burned last year we installed the hear technologies hearback system, it worked well and all the musicians loved it.

In researching the systems the Aviom always came up as being the best (and also 3 times more expensive) but it also gave you 16 channels as opposed to the 8 that the hearback system gives you.

In the end we found that 8 was fine but it's nice to have more as you can return the vocals dry to one channel and put the reverb return on another giving the singer (and everybody else) the chance to mix their own "wet" vocals. We then used the other channels for drums, bass, 2 guitars, keys.  We could always go mono on the drums and keys and get a couple more dedicated channels or you could stack a couple things...

In the rebuild we went with the Hearback system again with 6 stations.

Did I mention that the musicians loved these things!

[J.J. Blair]

I've never liked the Aviom's interface, and I'm not thrilled about the sound.  Always seemed to have headroom issues.  Now I understand why I like the Langevin so much ... it's twice as expensive as the Aviom!  Never realized how much those go for these days.  I've owned mine for so long.